Advanced Accelerator Applications is pleased to announce that it has acquired the remaining 49.9% of Atreus Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a development-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada and focused on the development of proprietary molecular imaging products aimed at imaging apoptosis and necrosis based on Annexin V. Atreus Pharmaceuticals Corporation is now a fully owned AAA subsidiary and has been renamed AAA Canada.
AAA also announces the enrollment of the first patient in the Phase I/IIa clinical trial to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics and dosing of key diagnostic product candidate 99mTc-rhAnnexin V-128 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis. The study will also assess the ability of 99mTc-rhAnnexin V-128 to identify the disease and to monitor the effectiveness of current drug treatment. 99mTc-rhAnnexin V-128 is a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) radiopharmaceutical agent being developed to detect early cell stress and apoptosis (programmed cell death) in a number of pathological conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.
Stefano Buono, Chief Executive Officer of AAA, commented: “These two announcements are key milestones in AAA’s progress. The acquisition of the remaining 49.9% of Atreus has been triggered by a number of successful milestones achieved during the development of Annexin V-128. I am delighted that Atreus’ founder, Bill Dickie, will now be President and CEO of AAA Canada and will continue working with us in what we expect will be the development of products based on Annexin V. We are also very excited to be initiating the first of a series of new Phase I/II clinical trials aimed at understanding the potential of 99mTc-rhAnnexin V-128 in different indications.”